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Meteorological factors have significant impacts on crop yield. To account for the impact of meteorological factors on foxtail millet (Setaria italica Beauv.) production in different water conditions, a total of 38 collected varieties were grown in nine seasons from 2011 to 2020 (except 2016) under well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS) conditions. The results showed that there was a large seasonal variation in GY; the variation ranged from 4.92 t ha−1 to 6.95 t ha−1 under the WW treatment and from 3.50 t ha−1 to 5.77 t ha−1 under the WS treatment. The impacts of meteorological factors on foxtail millet under the WW and WS treatments were different; sunshine duration during the whole stage, vegetative stage and reproductive stage had the greatest impact under the WW treatment, while under the WS treatment, sunshine duration and the diurnal temperature range during the whole stage and reproductive stage were the greatest impact factors on grain yield. This work could help us in high-yield foxtail millet cultivation and breeding.

Abstract Treatment of COVID-19 with a soluble version of ACE2 that binds to SARS-CoV-2 virions before they enter host cells is a promising approach, however it needs to be optimized and adapted to emerging viral variants. The computational workflow presented here consists of molecular dynamics simulations for spike RBD-hACE2 binding affinity assessments of multiple spike RBD/hACE2 variants and a novel convolutional neural network architecture working on pairs of voxelized force-fields for efficient search-space reduction. We identified hACE2-Fc K31W and multi-mutation variants as high-affinity candidates, which we validated in vitro with virus neutralization assays. We evaluated binding affinities of these ACE2 variants with the RBDs of Omicron BA.3, Omicron BA.4/BA.5, and Omicron BA.2.75 in silico. In addition, candidates produced in Nicotiana benthamiana, an expression organism for potential large-scale production, showed a 4.6-fold reduction in half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) compared with the same variant produced in CHO cells and an almost six-fold IC50 reduction compared with wild-type hACE2-Fc.

Aluminum (Al) toxicity inhibits root growth, while nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth and development. To explore the effects of nitrate (N) on Al toxicity and accumulation in root of wheat, two wheat genotypes, Shengxuan 6 hao (SX6, Al-tolerant genotype) and Zhenmai 168 (ZM168, Al-sensitive genotype), were used in a hydroponic experiment with four treatments (control without N or Al, N, Al, and Al+N, respectively). The results showed that N increased the inhibition of root elongation and aluminum accumulation in root. The Al-sensitive genotype suffered more serious Al toxicity than the Al-tolerant genotype. Histochemical observation clearly showed that Al prefers binding on the root apex 7–10 mm zones, and the Al-sensitive genotype accumulated more Al in these zones. Compared with other treatments, the Al+N treatment had significantly higher O2−, superoxides dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) activities, H2O2, Evans blue uptake, malondialdehyde (MDA), ascorbic acid (AsA), pectin, and hemicellulose 1 (HC1) contents in both genotypes. Under Al+N treatment, O2− activity, Evans blue uptake, MDA, and HC1 contents of SX6 were significantly lower than those of ZM168, but SOD, CAT, and POD activities and AsA content exhibited an opposite trend. Therefore, aluminum toxicity and accumulation in root of wheat seedlings were aggravated by nitrate.

Scrophulariae Radix (SR) is one of the oldest and most frequently used Chinese herbs for oriental medicine in China. Before clinical use, the SR should be processed using different methods after harvest, such as steaming, “sweating”, and traditional fire-drying. In order to investigate the difference in chemical constituents using different processing methods, the two-dimensional (2D) 1H-13C heteronuclear single quantum correlation (1H-13C HSQC)-based metabolomics approach was applied to extensively characterize the difference in the chemical components in the extracts of SR processed using different processing methods. In total, 20 compounds were identified as potential chemical markers that changed significantly with different steaming durations. Seven compounds can be used as potential chemical markers to differentiate processing by sweating, hot-air drying, and steaming for 4 h. These findings could elucidate the change of chemical constituents of the processed SR and provide a guide for the processing. In addition, our protocol may represent a general approach to characterizing chemical compounds of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and therefore might be considered as a promising approach to exploring the scientific basis of traditional processing of TCM.

Weather factors and drought could impact the yield of foxtail millet, and varieties with traits that could alleviate the negative effects of deteriorating weather factors in the future should be developed. A total of 25 foxtail millet varieties were evaluated in experiments from 2016 to 2020 under well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS) treatments. Future climate change might favor an increased temperature that impedes grain yield, so varieties with characters that are less sensitive to temperature change are preferred. Varieties with a high panicle dry-weight per plant, thousand grain weight, leaf area and water productivity in deep soil layer usually gave better grain production under both water treatments. Under the WW treatment, low grain abortion rate, optimal chlorophyll and canopy temperature and more roots in the upper soil layer could favor a high yield and drought resistance. Under the WS treatment, varieties with a high harvest index, low rate of water loss and more roots in the upper soil layer usually produced a high yield.

Crop residues are the primary source of carbon input in the soil carbon pool. Crop rotation can impact the plant biomass returned to the soil, and influence soil respiration. To study the effect of previous crops on soil respiration in cucumber (Cucumis statirus L.) fields in solar greenhouses, soil respiration, plant height, leaf area and yield were measured during the growing season (from the end of Sept to the beginning of Jun the following year) from 2007 to 2010. The cucumber was grown following fallow (CK), kidney bean (KB), cowpea (CP), maize for green manure (MGM), black bean for green manure (BGM), tomato (TM), bok choy (BC). As compared with CK, KB, CP, MGM and BGM may increase soil respiration, while TM and BC may decrease soil respiration at full fruit stage in cucumber fields. Thus attention to the previous crop arrangement is a possible way of mitigating soil respiration in vegetable fields. Plant height, leaf area and yield had similar variation trends under seven previous crop treatments. The ratio of yield to soil respiration revealed that MGM is the crop of choice previous to cucumber when compared with CK, KB, CP, BGM, TM and BC.

Genetic relationships between plant height and root morphology were investigated in a diverse set of wheat germplasm [199 double-haploid progeny derived from a cross between Avalon and Cadenza (Triticum aestivum L.), Rht near-isogenic lines (NILs), and accessions from the Watkins Collection] to investigate whether Rht genes controlling shoot height also control seedling root growth. A germination paper screen was developed to measure seedling root length (distinguishing seminal axes from seminal lateral roots), surface area, volume, and dry weight, and these were compared with shoot dry weight and the root to shoot ratio. Field experiments were conducted to measure mature plant height (PH) and grain characteristics for the mapping population. Forty-three quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for PH, root and seed traits were identified. Some QTLs for roots and either height or seed characteristics were coincident: chromosome 2D had co-locating root and PH QTLs; chromosomes 4D had co-locating root, PH, and seed QTLs; chromosome 5A and 6A had co-locating root and seed QTLs; and other non-co-locating root and PH QTLs were found on chromosomes 3A and 3B. Rht NILs illustrated that some known dwarfing genes reduce both PH and root proliferation. However, analysis of 25 short and 23 tall lines from the Watkins wheat germplasm collection indicated that PH and root proliferation are not simply related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]